Take linked notes in OneNote

With Linked Notes, you can dock OneNote to one side of your computer screen so you can look at websites and apps on the other side. It's easier to take notes this way, and you'll have the added benefit of having your notes automatically linked to whatever you're researching.

You can take Linked Notes with Internet Explorer, Word, PowerPoint, and even other OneNote pages.

Make sure the Command bar is visible. If it’s not, right-click the title bar, and then choose Command Bar.

In the menu bar that appears, choose OneNote Linked Notes. If you don’t see this command, click the small » symbol at the far right of the command bar to display hidden commands.

In Word, PowerPoint or OneNote:

Choose Review > Linked Notes.

In the Select Location dialog box, pick a location for the new notes page and click OK.

If you choose a section, a new page will be created in it. If you choose an existing page, your linked notes will be added to that page.

On the OneNote window on the right, move the cursor where you want to begin taking linked notes.

Take notes the way you normally would. During a Linked Notes session, OneNote stores a thumbnail image of the page, a text excerpt, and a link to the documents or web page you used for research, so you return to the source content.

Note: You can stop taking linked notes any time. In the upper-right corner of the docked OneNote window, click the chain link icon, and then choose Stop Taking Linked Notes.

When you move the mouse pointer over individual notes, you’ll see the details of the linked file. Click a thumbnail image to open its associated file.

To see a list of all of the documents that are linked from the current page, or to remove any links that you don't want or need, click the chain link icon in the top corner of the page.

In this article

About Linked Notes

Taking linked notes in Microsoft OneNote 2010 makes it easy to do research on your computer by letting you take notes in a docked OneNote window on your desktop while you work side-by-side in other programs or in your Web browser.

Notes taken in this mode are automatically linked by OneNote to whatever you're looking at in Internet Explorer, in Word documents, in PowerPoint presentations, or on another OneNote page in any of your notebooks.

During a Linked Notes session, OneNote stores with each paragraph of notes a link to documents or Web pages that you used, so that you can click that link and easily return to this content again later on. OneNote also stores a thumbnail image of the page and a text excerpt from any Word 2010 or PowerPoint 2010 files you looked at, so that you can easily locate and recognize the correct page or slide again.

Using this feature requires that your notebook is saved in the OneNote 2010 notebook format. To check which file format a notebook is saved in, do either of the following:

Open the notebook you want to use for Linked Notes, and then look at the title bar of the OneNote 2010 application window. If [Compatibility Mode] is shown next to the notebook name, then the current notebook is saved in the older OneNote 2007 format and the Linked Notes feature will not be available.

Right-click the notebook's icon on the Navigation bar, and then click Properties. In the Notebook Properties dialog box, note the Default Format to see what format the notebook is saved in. If the current format is OneNote 2010 notebook format, then you can use the Linked Notes feature in this notebook.

Start a Linked Notes session

You can begin taking linked notes about the Web page, Word document, PowerPoint presentation, or OneNote page that you are looking at by doing the following:

On the Ribbon in Word, PowerPoint, or OneNote, click the Review tab.

In the Notes group, click the Linked Notes button.

In the Select Location in OneNote dialog box, navigate to the notebook, section, and page where you want to take notes about the document or page that you are looking at, and then click OK.

Take notes as you normally would. You can bring up other OneNote pages in the main program window, bring up Internet Explorer, or open other Word or PowerPoint documents. OneNote automatically links back to what you were looking at so you can easily refer to the source material again later on.

Note: Another way to take linked notes is to click Dock to Desktop on the View tab in OneNote 2010. The current OneNote page will be docked to the side of the Windows desktop, where it will stay visible while you use other programs. Any notes that you take in the docked OneNote window will be linked to their context.

Finish a Linked Notes session

You can end a Linked Notes session by doing either of the following:

Click the Dock to Desktop button on the quick access toolbar to undock the window and toggle Linked Notes mode off (or simply press CTRL+ALT+D).

Click the Normal View button on the View tab.

View or remove note links

While in Linked Notes mode, a button with a chain link icon is displayed near the top left corner of the docked notes page. While in a Linked Notes session, you can hover the mouse pointer over individual notes on the page to see which notes are linked to something else.

Hovering the mouse pointer over any of the application icons that may appear on the page will display thumbnail images of any Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, OneNote notes pages, or Internet Explorer Web pages that the notes are linked to. You can click any of these thumbnail images to open their associated files.

To see a list of all of the documents that are linked from the current page, or to remove any links that you don't want or need, click the chain link icon in the top corner of the page.

Disable Linked Notes

Linked Notes mode is enabled automatically whenever you take notes in a docked OneNote window. If you prefer to turn this feature off, follow these steps:

On the File menu, click Options.

On the left side of the OneNote Options dialog box, click the Advanced category.

On the right side, under Linked Notes, clear the Allow creation of new Linked Notes checkbox.

Tip: If you want to clear any linked notes that have already been associated with Web pages and documents, click the Remove Links from Linked Notes button in the OneNote Options dialog box.

Re-enable Linked Notes

If you previously turned off automatic Linked Notes mode in the docked window, you can enable it again by following these steps:

On the File menu, click Options.

On the left side of the OneNote Options dialog box, click the Advanced category.

On the right side, under Linked Notes, select the Allow creation of new Linked Notes checkbox.